BY PORTSIA SMITH

An Army National Guard recruiter will serve 10 years in prison for raping a teenage girl he was trying to recruit.

Jerry Lee Robinson, 38, of Culpeper was sentenced in Caroline County Circuit Court yesterday to 21 years in prison with 11 years suspended.

He was found guilty of rape, forcible sodomy and misdemeanor sexual battery in August 2011.

The victim, from Goochland County, was 17 at the time and is 19 now. She testified last year that she met Robinson in June 2010 after she submitted an online application to join the Army National Guard.

At that time, Robinson was a sergeant first class with the Army and worked as a recruiter in the Warrenton office. He had served in Iraq and had received a Purple Heart, among other awards.

At Monday's sentencing, defense attorney Kenneth Crisman put on four witnesses and introduced a psychological evaluation he had done.

Three of those witnesses, including Robinson's wife, said that he suffers from post traumatic stress disorder.

A sergeant who served in the military with Robinson testified that while in Iraq, Robinson was a combat engineer whose job was to clear the roads of improvised explosive devices, or IEDs.

He said Robinson survived close encounters with nine IEDs and a large rocket.

He also told Judge J. Howe Brown that in 1999, Robinson received the Valley Forge Cross for Heroism, one of the National Guard's highest awards, for pulling a 9-year-old girl out of a car that was submerged in 25 feet of water.

Crisman argued that because of PTSD and his service to the country, Robinson should be sentenced to the lower end of the guidelines and serve only five years in prison.

"He should be given some credit for his service, but not that much credit," countered Commonwealth's Attorney Tony Spencer, who said Robinson should serve at least 14 years and four months, which is in the midpoint of the guidelines.

Spencer read a victim impact statement from the teenage girl, who did not appear in court yesterday.

She wrote that ever since the incident, she has had trouble sleeping, trusting people or going anywhere by herself.

She said she is scared to be out in public, had to drop out of high school and now has no desire to go to college.